4 years in

It's Thursday. I've been at home for most of this week with a stinking cold. It's November and the run-up to Krismus has already started. Not that I'm annoyed by it this year, in fact it's pleasing to be ahead of the game for once. I've used the interweb to preorder several gifts already; the family being prime recipients. This is expected to change, but I wouldn't want to put out any suggestion to further establish any possibility that I'm an Ebeneza at the festive season. This year I reckon I'm up for it big time!
Did I mentioned it's November? November 2009 no less! November 2009 and a good long while since I previously stuck down any thoughts or waffling here. Many things have changed since my previous visit: I'm married, although strictly speaking I was, of two months, when I tapped out my rant about my boss. I have a new boss now and a far more rewarding job to boot. I own a car. I'm sat in a living space that now houses no less than seven speakers, now that's really something. I'm thirty four years old, looking ahead to the middling thirty five in July next year. I've visited New York, Sicily and Barbados - NY was a special; my wife and I travelled with my parents which was an absolute treat. Sicily was Lex and I at our camping and ruining the hire car best and 'Bados was a magical trip to attend a wonderful couple's wedding. My new boss is also my pal - he sent me on a specific training course that I'd wanted to attend for nigh on five years, added to which my line manager is a proper sort who has already enriched my work life beyond past imagined limitations. I'm happy after a long time of, after looking back, what seems like a long spell of a lack lustre grey plateau. I must have grown a little inside myself over past couple of years; I'm a lot less cynical but just as arrogant. I'm very much in love, without irritation, reservation or uncertainty. I'm sat on an expired period of contract with my mobile phone provider, but have yet to rush headlong into another contract to get the latest handset - a trivial point but one that glows with significance as I sit here pondering my existance. I feel I have choices. I'm earning enough money now to be able to save a little, or spank a lot. My iPod's broken and my push bike sits untouched in the garden with resident weeds wound around its spindles - but I'm not phased by it. There are other things to be getting on with. I love cooking. I have things to tinker with at home. The bathroom floor took forever but the toilet seat took less time. Things are beginning to come together nicely. I am, for the first time and in a good way, comfortably numb.